1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a phase change memory, and particularly, to a phase change memory having a plurality of heating parts electrically connected to a plurality of corresponding bit lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Memory is a growing industry that follows the trend of the electronic devices to store more data and to work efficiently. In the past days, memory only stored few data. However, the modern memory is utilized to store music or media data of at least one gigabyte. Therefore, memory having larger capacity for storing more data is required.
Depending on storage capacity and the relationship with power, memories may be divided into two types, volatile memory and non-volatile memory. The volatile memory loses the stored information when the power is turned off. The most common form of volatile memory is dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The non-volatile memory does not lose its information when the power is turned off. The information may be read again when the power is regained. The most common form of non-volatile memory is Flash memory. Both DRAM and Flash memory are programmed by electron flow and erased by removing electrons.
In the past few years, a phase change random access memory, also know as phase change memory, having different work mechanism from DRAM or Flash memory is developed. In contrast to present non-volatile memories, the phase change memory has better performance of reading and writing speed and has a longer lifespan. In addition, the phase change memory is much smaller and is easier to be incorporated with other electrical devices. Therefore, the phase change memory is a significant component of next generation microcontrollers in built-in application systems, such as information device systems, household supplies, car supplies, and control systems, for data programming and storage.